Luke wrinkled his nose and stood to challenge her. "Kira, you can't come. You need to stay away from all of the conduits until we figure out how to stop whatever's happening to you."
"I won't."
"You have to."
"Luke, come on. After all of this? You just want to cut me out? I don't care if you lock me in a closet when the battle starts, but I have to be there. I have to help."
"Kira, it's too dangerous. And not just for you, for everyone."
"I'll just steal your car and drive there. You can't keep me out of this."
"God," he said, and ran a hand through his thick blond hair, sighing, "can't you just listen to me this time?"
"No," Kira said quickly.
"How will you even get inside? Half of Sonnyville wants you dead."
Half? Kira gulped. Her list of allies seemed to be getting shorter on an hourly basis.
"We'll think of something. Zip me inside of your suitcase or something, I don't care. I just need to see my grandfather, to help him plan out the fight. I promise, I'll stay inside, I won't let anyone—not even Aldrich—know I'm there." Crossed-toes still count right? Kira thought, wedging her second-toe over the big one inside of her sock. No way would she let someone else fight her fight.
Luke raised his eyebrows. "You'll willingly keep away from the action?"
Kira nodded earnestly. Luke snorted.
"Please, I've known you too long to believe that one. At least try to be inventive."
Pavia strode in, making no attempt to be quiet as she said goodbye and hung up the phone. Saved by the vampire, Kira thought.
"Alessandro just confirmed it. He joined some of Aldrich's cronies and they had very loose lips, good for us. They're amassing outside of Sonnyville, just waiting for the go ahead."
Just waiting for me to arrive, Kira thought.
"Did he learn anything else?" Luke questioned. He flicked his eyes to Kira one more time, letting her know he hadn't forgotten anything.
Pavia shook her head.
"Any word from the other vampires? How fast can you all get there?" Kira asked.
"As soon as you need us, but no sooner. We won't be able to hang around outside of Sonnyville unnoticed. Once we get there, we need to get right to the fighting."
"Sounds good to me," Kira replied. She wanted to end this, once and for all. "Your vamps attack from the outside, Luke and I rally the conduits on the inside and Aldrich is toast."
"I have an idea," Luke said quietly, almost as if he wasn't quite sure he wanted to share it. Kira waited. He tensed and then sat up. "There's another way in, a secret way under the wall."
"Really?" Kira jerked in surprise. Why hadn't he told her?
"It was a backup, in case vampires ever surrounded Sonnyville. A way to get people out if we needed to. But it can also get people in, people like vampires. But only the council knows where it is."
"My grandfather will show us, he—"
"Don't," Pavia said quietly, "don't show us, just in case something happens or someone follows us. We'll fight from the outside, like Kira said."
"You're sure?" Luke asked. "Being inside might provide more protection."
"Or a Punisher might kill us when we're not looking," she replied. Kira sank back in her seat, unable to deny it. If the conduits wanted to kill Kira, nearly one of their own, there was almost no way they would agree to fight peacefully alongside vampires.
All of them stopped talking, choosing to think for a minute instead. Blood rushed in Kira's veins, warming her body, exciting it. The fight was finally here, and this time, Aldrich would not escape. One way or another, he would pay.
"So saying I agree to let you come—"
Kira rolled her eyes and interjected, "Meaning you've realized there's no way to stop me."
"Meaning I'm a kindhearted soul who knows how much this means to you—"
"Who's also afraid of me," Kira supplied.
Luke smirked. "Who's also deathly afraid of pissing you off—how do we get you inside without Aldrich knowing? We need to hold the fight off for as long as possible."
"We can't drive," Kira said.
"Flights will automatically be suspicious," Pavia said.
"And parachuting is totally out of the question…" Luke deadpanned and looked at her, forcing his wavering lips together. "You might have had something with the luggage."
"For real?" Kira asked, concerned with how serious his voice sounded. He nodded earnestly. Kira couldn’t detect a joke…but he had to be kidding, right?
"Not the whole time." Luke sat forward, leaning on his forearms as his features became more animated. "We take the private plane, and when we land, you'll squeeze into a suitcase—don’t look at me like that, we can line it with memory foam or something—and then none of the conduits will know you're there. The vampires will only hear my name, hear about me landing, and I can say you stayed with your family, that you're waiting it out in Charleston. I'll go right to your grandfather's house, and we'll open the suitcase there."
"Aldrich won't buy it," Kira said.
"Maybe not forever, but we don’t need long. We only need enough time to organize the conduits and give Pavia the final word to attack."
"It might work," Pavia said, shrugging and throwing a wide, teasing grin in Kira's direction.
A suitcase. Really. Kira breathed deeply. It was for a greater cause, the good of her people…but a suitcase, really?
"Fine," Kira said through gritted teeth, "but you're bringing Tristan with you, Luke." She looked at Pavia quickly, and then to Tristan, who sat up upon hearing his name. Kira had one more thing to do before the fight.
She had to give Tristan his life back. To restore his soul by removing any and all memories of his life as a vampire.
To finally say goodbye.
Chapter Thirteen
She was going to kill Luke…kill him. I bought the thickest memory foam, he said. You'll be fine, he said. It'll only be fifteen minutes, he said.
Kira was going to kill him.
Her entire body ached and she had definitely been in this stupid, dark, suitcase sweating in her own hot breath for at least half an hour.
Ouch.
Another bump. How ridiculously ill paved were the roads in Sonnyville? Kira questioned, wishing she could rub her sore back. When he zipped her up, Kira had sworn that Luke was silently laughing at her with his eyes. But then he had lifted the suitcase to its rollers, so her bottom was wedged painfully in the narrow space taking on her full weight, and Kira knew—this was his grand revenge for never letting him win.
We'll see who's laughing when I finally get out of here, Kira thought, wincing as the car bounced over another pothole.
With no other distraction, she tried to focus on the plan. Pavia had regrouped all of the vampires aside from Alessandro, who was still acting as the inside mole, and they were making their way to the outskirts of Sonnyville—far enough away to avoid Aldrich's detection, but close enough to be there within minutes. And since vamps could usually run even faster than a car, Kira guessed they would be there in an hour or two. Hopefully that would be fast enough.
Luke and Tristan were sitting comfortably inside of the car, hopefully talking loudly about how they had left Kira behind with her mother, how they had foiled Aldrich's plot—just in case there were vampires listening as well as watching. Tristan was pretending to remember everything, and Kira had given him a few key pointers to mention—her falling, the fight in England, how his human body had adjusted to his vampire memories…basically anything that might throw Aldrich off.
And, well, Kira was obviously stuck in the trunk, disguised as a very heavy suitcase filled with books Luke had gathered on conduit lore.
Would Aldrich buy it? Hopefully for the few hours she needed to convince the Protector Council that in order to win this fight, they needed to listen to her.
Ding.
Kira's phone beeped—a signal from Luke that they were almost there. And sure enough, the car
slowed. The suitcase she was in slid forward, banging against the front of the trunk as the tires squealed.
Muffled voices grew louder, and Kira heard the pop of the trunk through the slightly opened zipper to the left of her ear. Holding onto the foam lining as much as possible, Kira braced herself for lift off. Squeezing her body inside of a large suitcase was one thing, but having someone lift it was an entirely different story. She might not be large, but she wasn't a waif either.
Someone moved her, bringing the suitcase back toward the opening of the trunk. Or at least that was the direction Kira thought she was moving, but that could be—
Holy crap, she was airborne. Same as before, her hipbones pushed against the sides of the suitcase as it painfully dug into her skin. And slam! Kira's body shook as she was dropped on the pavement. Her teeth bit into her lip, almost drawing blood. Now she was reclining, moving so her back shared the burden of holding her weight, and she was moving, rolling down an uneven path.
Stop. More muffled voices. More movement. Until finally, Kira heard the metal at her ear jingle and zip.
"I'm going to kill him!" were the first words out of her mouth, followed by the quick clamp of her lips to keep the sweet smell of Sonnyville from overwhelming her. Breathe, just breathe, Kira repeated to herself, slowly inhaling and exhaling through her nostrils. The darkness wove around her senses, called for the smell of blood drifting through the air, rippled along her canines.
Breathe, Kira said again, calming herself. She kept her powers locked tight. The smell slowly ebbed, getting less and less noticeable. Control, she thought. She just had to keep it controlled.
"Who?" Kira was pushed back to reality…to her pained limbs. She stood.
"You!" Kira spun toward the sound of Luke's voice and shoved his chest. "Fifteen minutes? More like an hour! And that foam stuff was crap, I have bruises everywhere."
"I'm sorry," Luke said holding his hands up as if to fend off another attack, but then his eyes sparkled, "but it was your idea in the first place."
Kira's eyes widened and she went in for another shove. "As a joke!"
"I still wouldn’t have thought of it if you hadn’t put the idea in my head," he said, slipping laughs out between the words and continuing to step backward out of Kira's reach.
She lunged for him anyway.
"Enough," a deep voice boomed behind her. "As much as I side with my granddaughter, there are more important things to discuss. Like why you're even here."
Kira turned around with a sheepish grin. "Hi, Grandpa," she said, waving, and then looked to the side at the smaller but still white-haired woman next to him. Leaning over to kiss her cheek and offer a light hug, Kira added, "Hi, Grandma."
Luke nodded formally to both of them, regaining his composure, and Tristan reached out for a handshake.
"When I spoke with Luke on the phone, he said you wouldn't be coming."
Yeesh, Kira thought. She had forgotten how down to business he could be.
"I know," she replied, "but there was a slight change of plans. I just, well, there's a lot to fill you in on."
"Tea?" her grandmother asked. Everyone, even Tristan, responded with "yes" and a prolonged sigh. "Why don't we all sit down?"
A few minutes later, five steaming cups were placed on the dining room table, now occupied by Kira, Luke, Tristan, and her grandparents.
"So you think the vampires are gathering outside of our walls for an attack? Led by this man Aldrich? Luke mentioned so much to me over the telephone, which was why we used the UV emitting car to pick you up at the landing strip. But why the secrecy with Kira?"
Luke looked at her, questioning. Kira wasn't sure how much she wanted to reveal.
"We heard the Punishers had gathered strength around here, that a lot of people might not be so welcoming if they saw Kira arrive," Luke said, not lying but not telling the whole story either.
"Is that true?" she asked. He nodded gravely.
"The Punisher Council has done a very good job at making their case, and your running away didn't help things either. A lot of people think that their accusations might be true…" He narrowed his eyes, peering closer at his granddaughter, almost as if he could sense the change in her. And maybe he did, because he was offering her the perfect opportunity to speak up. If she could buck up and take it.
"They are," she said quietly, quickly so she couldn’t back down. Staring at her cup, Kira watched the steam rise from her tea in silence, wondering if maybe that was what the smoke inside of her looked like. But hers was dirtier, more like a shadow than steam.
There was a gulp, but Kira couldn't say who it was.
"They are right," she said again, sitting up straight, stopping her cowardly behavior. It was the truth, and she had to keep facing it. "I'm turning into an original vampire, but Luke and I think we found a way to stop it." Or at least she hoped they did, that choosing one power over the other was key.
"How?" her grandmother asked, in her sweet singsong voice that even then seemed somehow happy and hopeful.
"That's not important." Kira paused, not important or just not explainable? Forget it. She pushed past the thought. "What matters is that it is happening, I am falling, and Aldrich knows it. That's why he attacking Sonnyville, in the hopes that I'll fall and bring every other conduit down with me."
Her grandfather met her eyes, transferring some of his strength into her with a meaningful nod. He understood. He knew what was at stake but wouldn't give up. "I assume you have some sort of plan?"
"Of course, sir," Luke leaned forward. "It's unorthodox, but, we made an alliance." He paused to look at Kira. "We made an alliance with vampires."
"What?" Her grandfather's loud voice boomed, reverberating off the walls of the small dining area. Kira reached out, grasping his hand—to comfort him or to hold him in place, she wasn't sure. Her grandmother held his other hand and the two of them locked eyes, almost in an inside joke even though it wasn't the right time for that. Kira held her eye roll back, but her grandmother didn't, and it gave Kira strength—maybe she could change his time-fortified beliefs.
"Just listen." Kira tugged on his wrinkly hand, getting his unsteady attention. "I made an exchange. They'll fight for us, help take down Aldrich, and in return I will turn them human when all of the fighting is over. They know the risks and they want to help."
"I will not willingly allow vampires inside these walls, it's an out—"
"Don’t worry," Kira interjected, almost happy Pavia had had the same thought, "they don't want to come inside. They'll stay beyond the wall, they'll fight from the outside." Kira leaned forward on her thighs as the bigger picture expanded right before her eyes, reminding her what so much of this fight could really be about. More than personal vengeance or vendettas. It could be about a whole new world.
She glanced at Tristan as he silently sipped his tea, listening intently but knowing it was not his place to speak. He was the future. He was the proof that not every vampire was as evil as conduits had always believed.
"Don't you see," Kira continued, "I saved Tristan. And you said it before, we can save more vampires. We don't have to be enemies with all of them. And this fight can be the start of that—the start of Protectors doing what they were always meant to do—Protect. Not kill."
Tristan stared at her from across the table as a small blush rose to his cheeks. He didn't know that, Kira realized. He never knew what his life meant, what his redemption could mean. She crinkled her eyes, letting appreciation light her irises.
Her grandfather pursed his lips, rubbing his palms together. Luke's foot tapped under the table, impatient. This needed to work.
"What's the rest of the plan," her grandfather grunted, giving his unofficial agreement to the first part. Kira smirked and Luke squeezed her thigh reassuringly—so far, so good.
"The rest is business as usual," Luke chimed in, getting excited. "The conduits gather in the town square, ready to face whatever vampires manage to make it over the wall. We for
m normal ranks and put the children under lock down, guarded with our best fighters and half of the Punisher Council." Her grandfather nodded, but Kira had a slightly different idea.
"Or we evacuate them," she said slowly.
Her grandfather looked at her slowly, eyes widening as understanding took over. "The escape route under the wall."
"That's the one," she agreed happily. "Send them with a protective guard and get them as far away from the fighting as possible."
"Funny you never mentioned that idea before," Luke said under his breath, sensing her ulterior motive.
"It came to me while I was stuffed in the suitcase with nothing but my thoughts to ease my pain," she replied sweetly, a little too sweetly. His eyes narrowed. Dang it, why could Luke read her so well? She couldn’t stop now though. "Do we by any chance know where it is?"
His eyes shrunk to tiny slivers.
"Yes, one second…" Her grandfather eased slowly out of his chair, his body betraying the strength his voice evoked. He returned with a large scroll and rolled it out on the table.
Blueprints.
"It starts here, in a hidden passage in the basement, in what has been the house of the head councilman since the day Sonnyville was created."
Kira followed her grandfather's finger as it rubbed against the paper, tracing a thin line that began under this very house, ran straight along the main road, under the wall and emptied right beside the first intersection, at least three miles outside of Sonnyville.
Bingo.
She looked at Tristan. This was his salvation. A way for Pavia to come in, a way for her to erase his memories, a way for Kira to save him from the darkness that haunted his vampiric life.
"What?" Kira asked, shifting her gaze. Someone had asked her a question.
"Is that the whole plan?" her grandfather asked. Kira nodded. "I'm calling an emergency council meeting. Luke, come with me to the town square, tell everyone what you told me over the phone. Do not mention the vampires or the fact that Kira is here, just the imminent attack." Luke nodded, all business.
"Lana, come with us. Lead the children and their guards to the passageway when the time comes, you remember the entrance I showed you long ago?" Her grandmother smiled yes, partly proud of Kira's grandfather for being such a strong leader, but also proud that she could help.
The Complete Midnight Fire Series Page 73